The first railroad in Moore County was the Western, chartered in December 1852. It ran from Fayetteville to the coal fields on Deep River.
It was completed to Egypt, on Deep River, in 1857. This road, however, lay entirely in that part of Moore and Chatham that became Lee County. It was later extended to Greensboro and was then leased to the Atlantic Coast Line. Uriah Schermerhorn was one of the contractors in the building of this road.
In point of time, the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line followed the Western by some 15 years. It had reached the county by 1875, and Sanford and Cameron were the first stations in the county, followed shortly by Winder (now Vass) and Manly.
All these juvenile towns were named for officials and associates of the railroad. Primarily, the R & Q A.L. reached from Raleigh to Hamlet, but through purchase and combination, the eventual extent was fromRichmond to Jacksonville.
The Carthage Railway Co. was chartered in 1885, and tracks were laid from Carthage to Cameron. J.C. Black, a Carthage lawyer, was president; W.J. Adams, lawyer and later a judge of the state Supreme Court, was secretary; and L.P. Tyson was treasurer. The deeds for the right of way of this road are of record in Carthage. About 1896, this road was extended to Hallison and a more or less temporary line run out to Curriesville. These extensions were made primarily for hauling lumber, and when the forests were depleted of longleaf pine, their usefulness declined accordingly. During this period, this road was managed by William Carey Petty, whose wife was Emma V. Thagard.
The latter days of this road were most checkered ones.
It passed through the several hands of would-be operators, one of whom (Judge McConnell) extended the Hallison line toward Deep River and stablished another station, McConnell. In this period it was known as The Randolph & Cumberland (The Run Off & Comeback Railroad) and still later as The Raleigh, Charlotte & Southern (The Rough, Crooked & Shaky) Railroad.
The Aberdeen & West End Railroad was primarily a lumber road, built from Blue’s Crossing (Aberdeen) to West End by F.A. Page in association with others of his family. It was later organized as the Aberdeen and Asheboro Railroad. The lines were extended to Asheboro, with spurs to Jackson Springs, Ellerbe, Mount Gilead, etc. It later became a part of the Norfolk Southern system.
The Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad, also originally a lumber road, ran from Aberdeen to Timberland. It was built by John Blue and associates. It was later extended top Fayetteville, with a spur to Hope Mills.
The “Eckhout” Railroad, also a lumber road built by W.B. Eckhout, a lumberman of Aberdeen, ran westward from Aberdeen via present-day Foxfire and crossed Drowning Creek at Patterson’s (Monroe’s) Bridge. It came to an end at Craigownie, a small settlement near or on the Richmond-Montgomery county line just west of the creek. Craigownie was merely a lumber camp, with a comissary, barroom and, for a short time, a post office.
The route of this road is almost identical with the present State Road 1112, from Aberdeen via Roseland, to its crossing of Deep Creek. From here, it veered almost directly to Patterson’s (Monroe’s) Bridge on Drowning Creek. The “official” name of this road was The Moore County Railroad. Its life was short. As soon as the timber had been cut, the road was abandoned.
About this time, J.C. Brown, who had come down from Massachusetts, purchased a tract of land west of Aberdeen upon which he projected a town: Roseland, with many streets and lots, but only on paper.
As a village, it may be said to have died a-borning. In addition, he proposed the building of a railroad from Fayetteville to Salisbury. Stock in this project was offered and sold locally, and construction was begun. Brown employed harry Thurston, a civil engineer, to survey this route.
This railroad followed the present road, which led from the soiuth edge of Southern Pines toward “The Ark,” now extended by Paint Hill to the Foirt Bragg reservation. The grading of this section was completed for some distance beyond that line and is still evident on the ridge leading toward the first ranger’s station. No rails were laid.
However, the line was surveyed as far west as the settlement of Pekin in Montgomery County, and perhaps much farther.
About this time, Brown took his leave of the region, together with the funds realized from the sale of stock. Thurston was stuck for more than $500 for his services, and the stockholders took their losses and quietly licked their wounds.
